


Reunion

by EagleOfTheNinth



Category: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-25
Updated: 2012-04-25
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:29:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EagleOfTheNinth/pseuds/EagleOfTheNinth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"One and one makes two, and two halves make a whole. And Faithful Friends should be together, never kept apart." -P.L. Travers</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the Sunleth Waterscape.

It’s awhile after being branded(for the second time, and on _purpose_ , and he knows Light and Serah are going to tear strips off of him for it, but that doesn’t matter because he needs this power and even if he goes Cie’th or turns crystal it’s okay so long as _they’re_ saved)that he finds the courage to try.

Some hero, being so afraid. But- _what if they don’t come, what if they can’t come, what if they’re not mine anymore_ -it’s too painful to look straight at, the idea that he might have them back. He has to back away, dance around it, take deep breaths and pretend like it’s nothing and place his hand on the brand that’s still sore and aching and _pull_ -

Blue crystal.

He nearly collapses, then, knees going weak with relief, clutching the stone like it’ll evaporate if he relaxes his grip for a second. “ _Shiva_ ,” he whispers, half laughing, half weeping. “Shiva, come on, come on girls, it’s me, I’m here-”

And light, bluer and colder than a winter sky, than methane snow, than the eyes of a goddess. Through it they come, swimming towards him, up through the cold, cold waters of another sea, breaching the surface and bursting out into physicality, searching for an enemy, finding none, and turning to smile at him. Oh, Shiva-

The singing he’d heard in his dreams every night, two voices, call and response.

The motorbike that had driven him, not the other way around, ice trails left in their wake, the bike that would never let him crash or fall.

The love, like a crown of ice resting on his brow, like a weight of jewels and silver fit for a prince from a story, cold and cruel and implacable as a glacier.

Oh, Shiva. His girls. His good girls. His own dear heart and soul.

He doesn’t know whether the sounds he’s making are laughter or sobbing; he reaches for them, blindly, clumsily, and they take his warm eager hands in theirs. Their skin is smooth and hard and so very cold that he knows, with some part of him, that it should be freezing his blood in his veins just to touch it-but it isn’t, because they will never harm him. He faced them once, and they yielded, finding him worthy, and nothing about them can ever, ever harm him again.

He’s hot and fragile and mortal, weak flesh and bone, but as long as his girls are here, Stiria and Nix, his lovely sisters, his Eidolon, as long as they still love him and still fight alongside him, he can crash across the planet with the unstoppable strength of an ice age.

“Never leave me again,” he begs, clutching their hands so tight, and he knows it’s a foolish thing to ask. Cie’th or crystal, those are the options, and either way he won’t have them anymore-and it was the miraculous third option that took them from him in the first place. But he is stubborn, he is determined-he refuses to lose any more loves. He will keep them, he will keep all of them, he will find a fourth choice that lets everyone live and a new day will dawn and they will never have to be apart again-

He can hear their high laughter, like glass wind chimes, mocking and regretful and loving, and delicate frost-ferns dust his face as Stiria leans close to kiss him on the cheek.


End file.
